1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an improved fingerprint analysis system. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a method, system, and computer usable program code to detect biometric spoofing of fingerprints.
2. Description of the Related Art
Biometrics is the study of methods for uniquely recognizing humans based upon one or more physical characteristics or traits. There are numerous possible candidates for biometric data, each having its own strengths and weaknesses. Biometrics commonly include fingerprint, hand, face, retinal, voice, and signature scanning for validating an individual's identity.
Fingerprints are the oldest and most widely used biometric for identity verification. This is because fingerprints have strong fundamental qualities, such as nearly everyone has distinguishable fingerprints, except for those without fingers or those with certain skin diseases. Fingerprints are unique from person to person and from finger to finger, which offers up to ten unique fingerprints per person. Fingerprints are formed during embryonic development and after forming have a high degree of permanence over the course of an individual's life.
Fingerprints are easily captured using various non-invasive techniques, such as, for example, capacitive AC, capacitive DC, electro-optical, and optical scanning. Because of the high degree of uniqueness among fingerprints and the accuracy and ease with which fingerprints may be measured, fingerprints offer a good choice of biometric data for greater levels of security.
However, various attacks exist to gain unauthorized access to systems protected by biometric authentication. One such attack occurs at the scanning level, such as presenting an artificial biometric sample. For example, an artificial biometric sample for fingerprint scanning is a “gummy finger”. A gummy finger is an artificial finger made, for example, from gelatin and may be used to spoof a biometric system. Studies indicate that a gummy finger may be created from a latent fingerprint of a person enrolled in the security system's database.
Currently, methods exist to make spoofing of a biometric system more difficult by determining whether or not a person is alive when the biometric data is presented to a system, but these current methods are difficult to automate in a fashion that is acceptable to users and feasible to implement. These current methods include temperature sensing, fingertip pulse detection, pulse oximetry, electrocardiography, dielectric response, and impedance. However, the extra equipment required to perform these tests, such as electrocardiography, may be very expensive and inconvenient for the user.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to have an improved method, system, and computer usable program code to detect biometric fingerprint spoofing by utilizing a scanning device capable of producing and detecting sweat in a live biometric sample.